Sheil Kapadia

Philly.com

After the Eagles got shut out by the Cowboys in Week 17, it seemed impossible for things to get worse in the playoff rematch.

But they did.

The Birds got outplayed in every facet for the second straight week, falling to the Cowboys, 34-14, in Dallas.

Disaster struck in the second quarter when the Cowboys outscored the Eagles, 27-7. The Birds' offense had the ball for just 7:07 in the first half as Donovan McNabb did not complete a pass until the second quarter.

Tony Romo torched the Eagles' defense for 203 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the first half.

Offensively, the Eagles were sloppy. Pass protection took a huge step back from last week. Other than a Michael Vick 76-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin, there was nothing positive.

Vick fumbled a handoff to Leonard Weaver, and Weaver later fumbled on his own after making a catch as the Birds turned it over four times overall.

The Eagles were also penalized nine times for 116 yards.

Some other notes:

** DeSean Jackson Tweeted and U-Streamed. But he did not make any plays. Jackson's first catch came with 11 minutes to go in the third quarter. He finished with three grabs for 14 yards.

** The Eagles' secondary struggled throughout. Sheldon Brown was whistled for a 40-yard pass interference penalty to set up the Cowboys' first touchdown. Asante Samuel was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and Joselio Hanson got beat multiple times.

** Vick completed a pass before McNabb. The Eagles faked a Vick run, and Maclin did a good job of selling it before going into his route on the 76-yard score.

** The Eagles ran only 18 offensive plays in the first half.

** Chris Gocong saw some playing time after being benched the last two weeks. He had a sack and a nice play on special teams in the first half.

** I'll count the snaps later, but it was almost exclusively Jeremiah Trotter in the middle for the base defense.

** Jason Peters did a good job on DeMarcus Ware the first two games. Not so tonight. He was beat by Ware time and again, and was also called for a pair of false start penalties.